Survivor XA903

XA903 - Privately owned, near Stranraer, Scotland

Vulcan B.1 XA903 at Wellesbourne, 26th September 1999; author

XA903 was the last B.1 to fly, being used as a flying testbed for the Olympus engines used on Concorde. Flown for a while with the underslung Olympus installation, that made her a five-Olympus aircraft! After her last flight 903 survived for some time at Farnborough becoming ever more decrepit until she was finally scrapped. The nose was acquired by mega Vulcan fan Colin Mears and sat in his back garden; when Colin was planning to leave the UK, XA903 was then bought by mega Vulcan fan Paul Hartley, and left Colin's lawn to join the Wellesbourne Wartime Museum, not far from XM655. By 2011 she had changed hands again and has now been moved to a private location near Stranraer. XA903 was in generally good nick inside but had suffered some exterior damage, particularly to the canopy, and had been estimated as needing 2,500 man hours to restore her to complete condition. While at Wellesbourne she was therefore an onongoing restoration project - this has been continued by the new owner who has now got her under cover, repainted, and is working on the interior. You can follow the restoration on his website.